1988 Mk2 Cavalier 1.8GLi

[sleag40]

Feb 9, 2019 18:33:56 GMT Mercdan68 said:

Nice update, good to see the scuttle
And screen surround is rock solid

It was a relief to see that when you consider the state of the rear end!

Feb 9, 2019 19:48:09 GMT cavboy80 said:

Thanks for the updates, i wondered where this had got to. Keep up the good progress.

No probs Jason, progress will get quicker once the scooter I'm working on is done.

Most of my spare time today was spent removing the incredibly sticky sealant off the windscreen rubber. It appears to be the same stuff that was used to attach the door membranes on my MK1. After about 3 hours, every last bit of it is off, and the seal is ready to be reused.

[sleag40]

Got a bit more time in on this today - under bonnet furniture removal time.



Haynes manual yielded the odd indication on how stuff comes apart. (not many)



Removed a sheet metal/filler/sheet metal sandwich "repair" to the offside inner wing behind the headlight.



Finished the session off by unpicking half of the reinforcement part of the replacement front valance.



I'll finish the other half next time!

[sleag40]

Most of the front suspension gubbins came off after work today.



Its getting closer to the stage where I can get it up on a rollover spit. The brake lines and servo, plus the steering rack will come out next, then I can remove the bulkhead cover and have a good check for car pox.



Last week I discovered the reason for the jerky gearchange experienced when it was in use....



The front gearbox mount was broken - a new one has been sourced already.

[gtviva]

Nice to see this moving on, if you need any of the lower front wing to front valence braces I still have a couple of pairs left

[grifterkid]

I love keeping tabs on this...

I truly, truly, TRULY wish I'd kept my Mk2 Cav!

On paper it was the most boring car in the world (povo' spec 1.3 hatch fleet model in flat burgundy), yet for £40 it was a gem!!! I owned it for all of a week in about 2002...

Oh my word hindsight is such a wonderful thing.

[sleag40]

Feb 19, 2019 10:15:13 GMT gtviva said:

Nice to see this moving on, if you need any of the lower front wing to front valence braces I still have a couple of pairs left

Cool! I'll check the condition of mine.

Feb 19, 2019 12:02:23 GMT grifterkid said:

I love keeping tabs on this...

I truly, truly, TRULY wish I'd kept my Mk2 Cav!

On paper it was the most boring car in the world (povo' spec 1.3 hatch fleet model in flat burgundy), yet for £40 it was a gem!!! I owned it for all of a week in about 2002...

Oh my word hindsight is such a wonderful thing.

If you had kept it, it would most likely be pretty ripe by now!

Today's installment - finished off sparating the front valance panel, then spent a bit of time marking where it needs to be positioned before welded on. Fitted pretty well, just needed a little tweak here and there to satisfy my OCD. Seen here in trial fit position.



Next I was going to take off the steering rack, but it turns out that you can't get to one of the bolts without removing the brake servo too. (Mr. Haynes makes no mention of this) Removing the servo wasn't the easiest of jobs in my partially crippled state, but perseverance and swearing saw the job done.



Once I've got round to taking the brake and fuel lines out, the bulkhead cover can come off. This won't happen tomorrow though, as I've locked the key to my unit inside the unit, so time available tomorrow will be spent cutting the lock off and being laughed at!

[sleag40]

Didn't get much time in on this today - just removed enough brake lines to get the bulkhead cover off.





Pleasantly surprised by the brake pipes all coming undone as they're supposed to, I was then further surprised by the condition of the bulkhead.



All the seams appear to be fine, just needs repairing around the gear selector shaft aperture at the bottom.

[sleag40]

Made an exploratory excavation into the driver's side sill this afternoon. Some time in the distant past the lower part had already been replaced with a Hadrian panel.



The rear half of that had then rotted out and had another aftermarket panel boshed on top of the rotten one. (This explains the "fatness" of the rear half of the sill prior to any excavation.)
I'm thinking that it might be a good idea to get the sills in order before it is suspended on a spit, as the spit will only be supporting the weight of the body at its extremeties.
The inner sill needs to be repaired where it strengthens the jacking point, then it looks like a routine outer sill replacement can be done.



Not entirely sure when the weldathon will commence, but I'm looking forward to getting stuck in.

[darrenh]

hadrian panels were pretty good i remember. think they still exist at the same site, now rebranded to carbodypanels4u, although i don't believe they do their own panels

[sleag40]

Boring but necessary stuff today - gave all the under bonnet stuff a quick clean and started boxing it all up to go into storage.





Once all that is taken care of, I'll be getting the grinder back out again.

A few bargainous eBay purchases arrived this week - steering rod ends, and the two front engine/gearbox mounts.



It's always a relief when the bits you need are available at a reasonable price.

[sleag40]

Decided against more grinder action for now - this morning I fancied taking off the rear undercarriage.



Good news was that everything came apart as it was supposed to - bleed nips + pipe unions included. The bad news is that the chassis legs need repairing where the spring plates are located. The spring plates have been replaced at some point (not very nicely!) and I'm guessing that they were pigeon shitted on over questionable metal. I'll get some pics of the pox another time - but heres one of the stripped rear end gubbins.



The pile of pieces requiring cleaning and painting is coming on nicely.

[Mercdan68]

Nice work again fella
That’s coming along well following with interest
I remember preparing plenty of these ready to sell in the garage where I worked in the late 80s
I’ve always been a ford man but love this due to its rarity now, great work

[darrenh]

that rear beam looks substantially stronger than mk2 astra version. this may go some way to explaining why they fitted cavalier ones to the WRC works astras.

[Knugcab]

One can then wonder why (IIRC) Astra beams was fitted to the Cavalier floor pan used on the Saab 900.......

[sleag40]

This morning was all about fuel system removal. The tank, fuel lines + pump/filter/pressure reg came out first. (Not particularly easy to remove the tank when the body is only 8 inches off the deck!)



The brake lines undid without drama - they're in really good condition so theres a fair chance they'll be reused.



Heres a shot of one of the ruined spring plates - I reckon these will repair as it only appears to be rotten in the flat part directly above where the spring sits. Time will tell!



Whoever replaced those ^^^ could probably do with welding lessons!

[sleag40]

Gear shift mechanism was whipped out after work this afternoon - it was very brown due to a liberal coating of underbody wax type stuff. Thinners and a cloth saw it looking loads better though



A bit more help is gonna be required to pretty up the fuel pump/regulator/filter arrangement removed yesterday.



The gearchange mech was the last item to be removed from the underside - now it's bare, I just need to get the sills sorted before it can go up on the spit.

[sleag40]

I got the majority of the nearside outer sill cut off this afternoon. The box section between the inner and outer sills is a lot more complete on this side, so now I know exactly what I'm aiming for when I reconstruct these structures before putting the replacement outer sills on. I suspect that a lot of people ignore these strengthening structures in an "out of sight, out of mind" style - its a lot more work to do it right after all.





Obviously I need to remove the rest of the outer sill before cracking on with it, but I'm gonna be struggling to find the time for it for a couple of weeks so progress will now be slowed.

[darrenh]

if they are same as astra (i would imagine so) the zig zag holey mysterious third inner sill would originally have had a 90 degree return on the bottom and then spot welded to the lower return of the outer sill.

example pic of 5 door astra with outer sill removed




p.s if you open the doors does the car bend in the middle (doors start missing their strikers ?) my astra did, which is why i am welding it on its side, with the doors shut lol !

[sleag40]

Aye, 50% of the zig zag holey mysterious third sill was still attached to the outer sill on the nearside - on the other side there was a lot of fresh air between the two! Luckily the shell appears to be super solid even with all this metal missing - when any one of the 4 axle stands is removed, all 4 doors still open and close nicely.
Just been to see a man about a mahoosive bottle of gas - it should be here to coincide with my return to fettling this thing in a couple of weeks.

[henspeed]

Ho bad are the bits on each side where the hatch rubbers seat against, they used to rot out on MK2's 20 years ago, hate to see the state of them now.
Bloody love Cav's though, had 6 over the years, 3 Mk2's and 3 MK3's